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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Cruel Optimism

Cruel Optimism

Berlant, Lauren

Hardcover

Literary CriticismGeneral Sociology

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ISBN10: 0822350971
ISBN13: 9780822350972
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: Oct 27 2011
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.45
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.20 Depth: 9.40
Language: English
A relation of cruel optimism exists when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing. Offering bold new ways of conceiving the present, Lauren Berlant describes the cruel optimism that has prevailed since the 1980s, as the social-democratic promise of the postwar period in the United States and Europe has retracted. People have remained attached to unachievable fantasies of the good life--with its promises of upward mobility, job security, political and social equality, and durable intimacy--despite evidence that liberal-capitalist societies can no longer be counted on to provide opportunities for individuals to make their lives add up to something.

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